Laura Fiorilli-Crews

I’ve lived more places than most. North Carolina is the one I’ve kept coming back to by choice.

I’ll always have a love-hate relationship with Florida. My grandparents lived there throughout my childhood, making for many long drives and green Christmases. I still haven’t seen enough of the Keys, or St. Augustine, or even Disney, which is sure to beckon to my daughter sooner or later. I’d love to see my Tampa friends again sometime.

But here we are, after a more or less national search. I’m glad this is where we ended up. And here is why.

(Once again, a disclaimer: I’m leaving out the obvious. Family. Jim’s new job. I’d be grateful for these things no matter where we found them.)

5. Fall. Florida has winter, contrary to popular belief. It gets cold, even unpleasantly so, and the buildings aren’t insulated well enough to withstand it. Only hardcore snowbirds dare go to the beach. In Gainesville, the sky would turn orange on some winter nights, making me think snow was possible. (It did happen once during my time at TBO. Some parts of our coverage area saw enough snow for people to write incredulous messages on their windshields.) And of course, Florida has summer – a nearly endless season when the weather ranges from perfectly welcoming to punishingly hot.

What Florida lacks are the seasons in between. And I’ve missed them, especially fall. So this year, I’m looking forward to turtlenecks and jackets, turning leaves and harvest tones.

4. Forests. I don’t want to discount Florida’s landscapes. There’s a reason people travel from around the world to sit on a Florida beach and watch the waves crash under the setting (or rising, depending on which coast) sun. I love the untamed Everglades, and the inland pools and rivers where wildlife comes close enough to nibble your toes. I have video of my husband actually frolicking with a dolphin on the shore of an uninhabited island.

But sometimes it seems like you have to put on blinders to enjoy Florida’s beauty. You have to drive past a lot of ugly sprawl to get to the best view. Certain parts of Tampa are almost entirely paved. Here in North Carolina, we aren’t immune to sprawl, but we seem to have left at least a few trees standing to break up the concrete, even on the major roads. Climate makes North Carolina trees grow taller than those in Florida, but people’s choices allow them to grow at all.

3. Basketball. This is too easy. This is what everyone knows about North Carolina. Why, oh why, do people in hot states like Florida and Louisiana go nuts for football? They have to encase the players in those air-conditioning tents just to ensure their survival. When you go to the football stadium, there’s supposed to be a chill in the air. The spectators of the Deep South would be much better off getting into basketball, played in climate-controlled arenas, during a time of year when there aren’t nearly as many other activities competing for your time. Plus, basketball is a far less dangerous pursuit for young kids. I’m glad to be back where basketball rules the conversation – and where more people understand the importance of hating Duke.

2. Fewer weirdos. There is no better way to say it than this old chestnut: “Florida: A sunny place for shady people.” I hate to say it, or even think it, in front of my many steadfastly Floridian friends who live productive lives and raise happy families amidst all the weirdness, but it’s true. I’ll admit that, as a journalist, the amount of weird news I encounter daily at work has made me more aware of the underbelly of wherever I happen to be living at the time. Florida’s underbelly is more exposed than most, and you can see it in everything from architecture to politics. Many have tried to explain it, a few have made a living off of it, but the Crews family doesn’t have to live with it anymore.

The crimes that TV dramas are made of – child abductions, serial murders – are more frequent and twisted than population alone can account for. In Tampa, what appeared to be a welcome reduction in street crime turned out to be due to former drug dealers turning to tax fraud as an alternate source of income. What seems to be a doctor’s office could just as likely be a pill mill. (Read those links – they are great examples of work by my former colleagues.) Decent places, like my grandparents’ Port St. Lucie neighborhood, go to seed with no warning. (A couple years after they left, home values rocketed up beyond belief, which just brings me to No. 1 on this list. Chalk it up to transience, escapism, even the weather – the arc of Florida simply bends toward freakishness.

1. Moderation. Being middle-of-the-road is unfashionable these days, particularly in politics. But it’s hard to deny the benefits of moderation when it comes to life in general.

Florida is a land of extremes. The economy goes through booms and busts, both of them much more intense than in other parts of the country. When I moved to Tampa, I had a hard time finding a haircut for less than $70, all the houses for sale were either serious fixer-uppers or “luxurious cityhomes,” and every other car was a Hummer limo. We left behind a landscape of foreclosed houses and vacant storefronts. My employer, which once sent reporters to the Olympics, had been through eight rounds of layoffs. It had been years since they even provided disposable coffee cups. Our neighbors in West Tampa were some of the best we’ll ever have, but the attempt at revitalizing the neighborhood suffered a devastating blow in the real-estate bubble.

Despite recent trends, I don’t think this steep decline can be entirely attributed to the national economy or the plight of journalism. No, it’s Florida. From the heights of a Florida boom, no one seems to remember the bad times. And vice versa. People take care of their own, as best as they can, but neither average folks nor policymakers make the kind of lasting changes that could make the next up-or-downswing less jarring. If Jim, who according to many sources has one of the best careers possible in this day and age, couldn’t find stability in Florida, who can?

Come to think of it, I think this entire top-5 list could be condensed into No. 1. (OK, maybe not basketball, especially considering the country’s growing disillusionment with college sports in general.) Moderation, balance, variety. My home state has a long history and an eye on the future, and when things get rough, people don’t just bail. We’re here, I’m back, and we plan to make the best of it.

A strange geopolitical convergence is about to take place. Two cities in which I have lived are about to host the rival party conventions in this election year. First, the eyes of the world will turn to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Then, they’ll turn north, along much the same path my family recently traveled, to watch the Democrats hold their convention in Charlotte.

Both cities are longtime strivers, jabbing elbows with dozens of other midsized American metros that hope to one day join the ranks of the “great,” or the “cool,” or at least the prosperous. I’ve seen both ignore their strengths and wallow in their faults. And in some ways, both have improved, though not always according to “official” plans. Now they will both have a moment on the national stage.

Did I mention they’re both vulnerable to hurricanes? Right now, Tropical Storm Isaac is aiming for Tampa and scheduled to arrive during the convention. But that could change. One stray noodle in the spaghetti model last week had the storm heading to Raleigh, which would mean at least a minor soaking for the DNC in Charlotte. I’ll rely on my Storm Team 8 friends as time goes on.

It didn’t take a political convention or a move or even a hurricane to get me thinking about the differences between North Carolina and Florida. The time seems right, though, to publish my thoughts. Lists do well on the Web, or so I’m told. So here are the top 5 things I will miss about Florida.

(Disclaimer for friends, neighbors, co-workers: This is a depersonalized list, meant to reflect things that are unique to Florida. Of course I miss my house, my favorite hangouts, and other daily goodies. But I’d miss those things no matter where they came from.)

5. Discount theme park tickets. My husband is going to disagree on this one. Yes, Florida’s theme parks can be expensive, crowded, hot, and hassle-prone. But they’re also astonishing displays of imagination. If you live there, you’re often granted the privilege of going on quieter, cooler days – and instead of paying an arm and a leg to get in, you can just pay an arm and a foot.

4. Seeing wildlife from my office. One of the unsung perks of working in the News Center in downtown Tampa was our riverfront location. Our coffee room had the best view of any coffee room I’ve ever been in. Roseate spoonbills, ospreys, manatees, dolphins – I’ve seen them all while stopping by the fridge for a mid-morning yogurt. It’s hard to beat that.

3. Freshwater springs. These are true hidden treasures of Florida. From deep underground, in places where real estate development hasn’t completely swallowed the natural landscape (yet), crystal-clear, cool water bubbles up and creates gorgeous, glassy rivers and pools. Most people don’t see this the first time they go to Florida, or the second, but if you stay a while, you will eventually find out about the springs. Forget the beach, with its roasting sun and sticky sunscreen. A day tubing the Rainbow River, while a bit of a trek from Tampa, was my favorite Florida water activity. Just a few hours in the cool water somehow reduces your body temperature for days, giving you hope that the steamy summer will one day end.

2. Gainesville. Take that, Tampa! Gainesville, by way of the University of Florida, invited me to become a Floridian for a while, to study journalism and help teach the next generation of wannabe-Carrie Bradshaws. I don’t think I could have landed in a better place in the summer of 2003. When my daughter and I ended up flying to Raleigh instead of driving, I was relieved we wouldn’t be spending 2 days in the car, but disappointed because it meant not visiting Gainesville one more time. It’s a welcoming town with lots of variety, and the size reminds me of Raleigh when I was growing up. While I was in school, the university had just reached the nation’s elite ranks, and it felt like everyone was invited to the celebration. A visit to Gainesville always makes me smile, and I’m glad I still have friends there. And this is coming from someone whose only football experience was a single Orange and Blue game.

1. Not being asked “You’re not from around here, are you?” It’s a cliche in Florida that most people aren’t natives. This has led to a situation where natives and newcomers alike are generally OK with you whatever your origins. Need a new driver’s license? It won’t take all that long. Need directions? Right this way. Need to start your life over again? We have what you need, whether that’s grad school or a hut on the beach.

By contrast, here in North Carolina, I am a native, and yet I’ve spent too much time over the years defending that fact to others whose roots go deeper. I don’t have a typical N.C. name, I didn’t go to high school here, and the name of my hometown was retroactively turned into the acronym “Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.” In a game of 20 questions with a local who’s trying to verify my authenticity, I pretty much fail.

The immediate area where we’ve landed is so full of newcomers itself that we haven’t faced much of this line of questioning. That’s good, because now my story has another layer. I have to explain that I am a Tar Heel who left and came back, and so, yes, I’m new here, but I am also from around here. This is going to be like explaining “Lost” to someone who only saw the first season. Yikes.

Am I forgetting something? Would you like to add to the list? Please leave a comment. And come back next week for 5 things that make me happy we moved to North Carolina.